


The Impossible

by LovelyZelda



Category: Gargoyles (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28269375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovelyZelda/pseuds/LovelyZelda
Summary: A treat for Nary and unknownlifeform who both wanted some kind of Goliath/Elisa. Set after "The Mirror" but definitely in that wonderful "totally in love but in totally in denial about it" phase of their relationship.Some references to past Goliath/Demona
Relationships: Demona/Goliath (Gargoyles), Goliath/Elisa Maza
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34
Collections: Yuletide Madness 2020





	The Impossible

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nary](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nary/gifts), [unknownlifeform](https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknownlifeform/gifts).



"So what's Demona's deal?" Elisa asks.

"She has some alliance with Xanatos," Goliath says. "I suspect that in the past, she and Macbeth--"

"No, no, I mean why's she got it out for you?" Elisa asks. "And I mean you in particular."

Goliath struggles to find the correct words. He has little familiarity with the human way of it. 

Once his angel said to him, "Did you know they couple for alliances? For more land and wealth? It's disgusting." 

Goliath had nodded, even though it did not disgust him. It was too strange--why want for more than your own castle? Why seek a mate outside your rookery unless there was not better choice? "I feel sorry for them," Goliath had said. "They don't have what we have."

"Sorry," Elisa says. "I know it's a touchy subject."

"I do not know how to explain," Goliath says. "I hardly understand myself. Demona and I..." It is strange to speak of her in this way with the name she earned while he slept. "She was my mate."

"Ah," Elisa says. "So she's your ex."

"My...ex?"

"As in former," Elisa says. "And in my experience, usually as in good riddance."

"In my experience, it is not the gargoyle way," Goliath says. He doesn't know why, but when he says, "For us, it is for life," it feels almost as though he's warning her (and perhaps himself).

Elisa looks at him, and Goliath can tell she is scanning his face, his "body language." Elisa is his trusted friend--the dearest friend he has ever had outside his rookery brothers and sisters--but the part of her that is a detective is always there in some way. It is uncomfortable when he knows that he is being "detectived", but Goliath has always appreciated warriors who can be ready for battle at an instant. 

"So does that mean--"

"No," Goliath says without hesitation. "I do not know what is wrong with us, but it is over."

"I can give you a whole list of what's wrong with Demona," Elisa says. "How long do gargoyles live, anyway?"

"Just over a century," Goliath says. "Sometimes two."

"Humans want it to be for life," Elisa says. "Or at least we think we do. 'Til death do us part.' But I think after a thousand years...you're probably in the clear."

"In the clear?"

"I mean don't beat yourself up," Elisa says. "It takes two to tango, right?"

He stares at her. "Tango?"

She laughs. "I'll teach you sometime."

Even though he doesn't know what she's talking about, Goliath is looking forward to it.

*** 

They are themselves again, but as he looks at Elisa, Goliath can still recognize her beauty. 

"Elisa, I..."

"Yeah, I know," she says without quite looking at him. "You're as relieved as I am that things are back to normal."

"That's not what I was going to say," Goliath says and before he can get the words out, dawn silences and deafens him. 

When he wakes, it seems almost like a dream, and it appears as though they have both decided there is no benefit to continuing the conversation. It is hardly the first time magic and Demona's mischief have interfered with their lives. It is good that things are as they should be.

And yet the memory of Elisa as one of them still lingers. 

The way she looks at him seems to have changed. He would ask her the same question she asked him--Did you think I was ugly before?--but it seems they have silently agreed not to speak of it.

***

"Sometimes," Goliath confesses to Hudson, "when I look at this new world we've found ourselves in I feel as old as the cliffs beneath our home."

Hudson snorts. "Wait'll you're my age," he says. "I wonder if the mountains ever have to deal with aches that don't seem to fade even with a summer day's sleep or if the winter nights seem to get colder with every year."

"I have been asking too much of you," Goliath says, again feeling the shame that there are so few of them. A gargoyle of Hudson's stature has earned the right to live out his nights in front of a warm fire--or in this case, the glow of the television set. 

"Is that so?" In the way of old gargoyles, Hudson can go from lamenting his tattered and tired old wings to claiming he's as young as ever in the blink of an eye. "I think you'll find there's still plenty of fight in me, laddie. Be happy to test your mettle if you don't believe me."

"I believe you, old friend," Goliath says. "Besides, it would not look good for the others to see how easily their leader is defeated."

He can tell Hudson is glad to be humored, and Goliath is happy to humor him in these things. It is a small price to pay for the wisdom of Hudson's years. Too small, perhaps, to atone for the fact that Hudson and his surviving rookery brothers and sisters should be tending to the latest (long lost) eggs and teaching the hatchlings their ways.

Although he has regularly sought and relied upon Hudson's counsel in the past, Goliath cannot bring himself to ask if there have ever been other gargoyle pairs who separated from each other. Why ask something he already knows? 

***

After sunset rouses them, Goliath is slow to leave his place. He has dreamed of the spell again and of Elisa's transformation. He hears her talking to Husdon, but still hesitates. He should not dwell on things that cannot be, but somehow his best nights are those when she is there at sunset and sunrise.

"Elisa has given me this magic blanket," Hudson proudly announces, holding up a long cloth with a tail.

Elisa laughs. "Electric blanket," she says. She takes the blanket back and presses the tail into the wall by the television. "I just hope the cord's long enough."

Hudson settles himself into his chair. Elisa places the blanket over his legs with a solemnity Goliath can tell is very amusing to her. "It'll take a couple of minutes to warm up," she says. "And don't leave it plugged in when you're not here. Or asleep. I don't want to have to explain how a gargoyle burned this place down."

Hudson nods. "Powerful magic then. I'll be careful, lass."

Intrigued by the word electrical, Lexington is tracing the blanket's "cord" from the wall to the fabric. 

"And watch the claws, guys," Elisa says. 

"Elisa," Goliath says quietly, "you have already done so much for us. You don't--"

"Goliath, it's not really magic," Elisa says. "Not unless electricity and a sale at Macy's count as sorcery."

Goliath looks at his clan. Brooklyn and Broadway have already lost interest, but Hudson is listening intently as Lexington explains some button attached to the strange device.

"You said he was feeling the cold more," Elisa says. "And since they don't really make hats and gloves in gargoyle size, I thought this would help."

"You are still too generous," Goliath says.

She smiles at him in a way that has made his heart race ever since the transformation. "Don't let anybody ever tell you New Yorkers are heartless," she says. She touches his arm, and Goliath tries not to remember what is was like to glide beside her. "My shift starts soon. I'll see you later."

The younger gargoyles remain just long enough to say goodbye to Elisa before launching themselves into the night. This time Goliath does not question their plans. He feels guilty for his thoughts of Elisa when Brooklyn, Broadway, and Lexington are of an age when they should begin courting or being courted by their rookery sisters.

Despite the chill in the air, their enthusiasm to be outside reminds him of a summer long ago, when his rookery sister with flame red hair and skin the color of the sky just before dawn stroked his hair for the first time and said, "I don't think you should call me sister anymore."

Moments such as those have been stolen from what's left of his clan.

"She's a good lass," Hudson says.

"Yes," Goliath says. "Elisa is a true friend to our clan."

Hudson sighs and mutters, "I'm only blind in the one eye, you know."

But Goliath is distracted by memories of the past and thoughts of a future that cannot be. "What did you say, old friend?"

"Oh, don't mind me," Hudson says. "Just observing the goings on."

Goliath nods and goes back to his thoughts. Guilt reminds that Hudson's own mate was lost years before their clan's murder. He cannot speak of his own strangeness to one who has grieved as Goliath grieved what he thought was the rubble of his angel. 

(Although he can still easily imagine Elisa with lovely black and burgundy wings, Goliath cannot even conceive of the idea that if asked--or once it can no longer be denied--Hudson will say that after all they've been through he just wants Goliath to find some happiness, however strange it may be.)

***

"Just want you guys to know I might not be around for the next couple of days," Elisa says. 

"Is something wrong?" Broadway asks.

"Just spending time with the family," Elisa says. "After all, it's Christmas this weekend."

She has put up things she calls "stockings" but they are not meant to be worn. Each one has been labelled with one of their names in a sparkling cursive hand. They have been instructed not to look inside them until Christmas (this will become a point of contention between Broadway, who will insist they follow Elisa's directions, and Brooklyn, who will point out that they don't actually know when Christmas is without Elisa to remind them).

"I've got the night off," Elisa tells him. "Thought it'd be nice to spend some time together."

"Yes," Goliath agrees. "That would be nice."

They are going to Rockefeller Center--Elisa wants him to see something.

"I'm surprised I didn't have to tell you guys about Christmas," she says as they glide over the city. "Like one of those specials I used to watch as a kid."

"It is an old human ritual," Goliath says.

Elisa laughs. "I guess that's one way of looking at it."

"Thank you for the...stockings."

"Those are from Santa Claus."

"Santa Claus?"

Elisa explains. Apparently there is a member of the Third Race who enters human homes and leaves trinkets in exchange for offerings of milk and cookies. Some humans leave offerings for his livestock, but that is not strictly required.

"But you brought them," Goliath says. "And you selected their contents

"Just think of me as one of Santa's little helpers," Elisa says.

They arrive before Goliath can ask how she has been tasked with helping an elf despite not knowing about the fair folk.

Elisa has brought him to the largest tree Goliath has ever seen, adorned with lights. "It is...magnificent, he says. 

She takes his arm. "I thought you'd like it," she says. "And it's always fun getting to play tourist. Too bad we can't go ice skating."

"Ice skating?"

She points to a frozen pond beneath the spectacular tree. "Down there. You put on...do you know what a sled is?"

"I think so."

"It's like two little sleds on your feet," she says. "And then you glide around on the ice. I guess it's more fun if you're stuck on the ground."

Her words remind him again of the transformation. "Do you feel 'stuck'?" he asks.

"Not with my own personal air service."

"We have not discussed..."

"No, we haven't," she says before he can decide how to refer to it. "But I think we both know it's impossible."

"Is it impossible," Goliath says. "But I was told it was impossible for my clan to awaken. And when we did...here there are so many things I could not even imagine. That I still think cannot be. And yet, so many of these things that are wondrous to me, you hardly even notice them. So much of what I find impossible is what you call normal."

"I wouldn't say anything about New York is normal," Elisa says. "That's one of the things I like about living here." "You have told me on many occasions that if a thing can happen anywhere--" "It can happen in New York." Elisa shakes her head, but she is also smiling. "All right, you got me. But...it's a nice night." "Yes, it is," Goliath says. "So maybe we should just try to enjoy it for what it is?" She looks up at him, and Goliath can tell that they have been troubled by similar thoughts. He wants to ask what exactly it is. But because she has asked him to, he puts his thoughts of what cannot be aside and gestures to the tree. "Thank you for sharing this with me."

"Any time, big guy."


End file.
